Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ten More things that happened...

...while we were taking a break from blogging.

1. Our pineapple sage started blooming.

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2. We saw a rainbow of color in our garden!  Well, actually it was all on one plant - the 'Bolivian Rainbow' pepper.

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3. We grew a wall of tomatoes.  They liked the warm brick wall so well that they climbed higher than the support stake. So then we tied them to the lamp post and the cable lines for support.

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When we finally took it down, we harvested 5 pounds of green 'Red Grape' tomatoes, which then became green tomato jam.

4. Our friends W&M came down from Victoria, BC and we visited the Olympic Sculpture Park.

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Calder's Eagle in the foreground and the Space Needle in the background. 

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Wing Nut waxed nostalgic when she saw this one. In this age of computers, do people know what this is and does anyone still use it?

5. Wing Nut bought 25 pounds of organically grown squash at work to compensate for the damned rats/squirrels/raccoons eating all of ours!  Rant Woman joined us one evening for a squash smorgasbord. We sampled white acorn, potimarron, and delicata. YUM!

6. We added another unusual plant to our hillside hummingbird garden -- Dicliptera suberecta or Uruguayan Firecracker Plant. It's a tender perennial so let's hope we don't have another snowpocalypse this winter.

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7. In fear of a hard frost, we harvested all remaining tomatoes and peppers and most eggplants.  We then lost the kitchen counter.

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The little round ones in the basket and in the boxes are Sungolds. The big yellow ones are Persimmon. The big red one is Italian heirloom. The smaller red ones are Langley Silver Tiger. And the handful of little ones on the counter at the very bottom of the pic are Red grape.

P1010655 We harvested more beautiful and delicious eggplants and two types of hot peppers -- Thai hots (upper left) and Malaguetas (upper right).

8. Curmudgeon saved purple orach seeds for next year. 

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The plant sends up seed spikes that are 5-6 feet tall. The dark purple leaves are edible--we use them in salad mixes.

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Anyone need a few hundred seeds?

9. Wing Nut attended the Puget Sound Mycological Society's Annual Wild Mushroom festival.  Who knew mushrooms came in so many shapes and sizes and colors? There was even a blue-green one that smelled like anise (Clitocybe odora). Now I want to try growing mushrooms too.  Maybe Santa will bring me a kit from Fungi Perfecti.

10. We attended the October meeting of the Seattle Area Garden Bloggers United To Talk (SAGBUTT) at the Lake Wilderness Arboretum.  The fall colors were marvelous as was the company!

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P.S. to our SAGBUTT friends  -- we'll put the eggplant & tomato salad recipe up on the next post.

13 comments:

garden girl said...

What beautiful edibles you're growing! Those peppers are gorgeous.

A typing eraser! How fun! I can't say I miss them, although I do miss that cool clicking sound of a manual typewriter.

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Love the Wall-O-Maters! Indeterminate really does mean indeterminate! Love the pepper plant, so bright and cheery.

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I can see why you were taking a break from blogging. I think I may try to get myself to do that at some point, but I'm not feeling ready to take that plunge, though.

I like your photos.

Anonymous said...

No wonder you needed a break...you've certainly been busy, and so has the garden. Those 'Bolivian Rainbow' peppers are incredible. :)

Anna said...

Isn't t that pepper something special ? :)

our friend Ben said...

That tomato plant is something else, Wenches! And I too hope Santa will leave a mushroom-growing kit (or two) under my tree...

JGH said...

I'm so intrigued by the mushroom festival! Loved seeing your edibles- such gorgeous shades of purple.

I haven't seen an eraser like that in years -- my son saw a typewriter at a yard sale recently and asked what it was - oy!

Tom said...

Missed your post, glad to read that you were just on a break - those are important. Great pictures. Sorry about the squash. Maybe put out the word with friends / hit a few yard sales for old bird cages? We used to use one to save the catnip (from the cat).

Wing Nut said...

Hello Garden Girl! Glad the typing eraser made you smile. The peppers were beautiful, weren't they?

Janet, as the realtors say, "location, location, location!" The brick wall faces west and has a cement patio in front of it. I think we found the perfect tomato, pepper and eggplant spot.

Thanks, Sue & Nancy! I'd forgotten how much fun blogging can be! We just had too much going on for a few weeks there. Maybe as the weather changes and things slow down a bit, we can do more blogging.

Thanks Ana! We thought it was pretty spectacular too.

Hi OFB! I'll put in a good word with Santa for you if you'll do the same for me! :-)

JGH, now I feel old. I wonder what your son would say about an 8-track?

Hi Tom! Caging the squash? Hmmm... interesting idea. Maybe next year. Thanks for the idea.

Matron said...

those big tomatoes look wonderful. They always seem to be the last to harvest! I've just picked my last ones too!

Karen said...

My pineapple sage only recently started blooming too - did it seem late this year or am I just misremembering its usual timing? I remember typewriter erasers but do have to explain that sculpture to my younger visitors sometimes. :) I'd take purple orach seeds, I'd grow that as an ornamental almost as much as for the taste, it's gorgeous!

Curmudgeon said...

Hi Matron! Yes, those big ones do seem to ripen later. But they are worth the wait. This is the 2nd year we've grown the big yellow ones and we'll definitely grow them again next year.

Hi Karen! Only one of our PS is blooming--the one in a pot on the patio. The one at the top of the hill doesn't even have buds yet. It's definitely a late bloomer. I checked my blog posts for last year and my Nov. 15 GBBD post shows it in bloom. But each year around mid Sept. I look at it and think--I should yank that out, it didn't even bloom this year. Patience is not my strong point. And apparently neither is memory. LOL!

Wing Nut said...

Hey Karen, my manager at the nursery said she often has pineapple sage bouquets on her Thanksgiving Day table! Talk about a late blooming flower!